The Trump administration’s transfer to impose tariffs on Mexico despatched shock waves throughout the nation of 130 million folks on Sunday, with financial sector after sector bracing for the influence of those measures.
Thus far, Mexico has but to supply any specifics on the way it plans to hit again. However President Claudia Sheinbaum’s negotiators should choose from areas the place her nation has some leverage to react, comparable to agriculture, and components of the economic system the place it has little or none, just like the power trade.
“Simply as a place to begin, Mexico has to retaliate,” stated Kenneth Smith Ramos, a former Mexican authorities negotiator who put collectively the retaliation checklist in 2018, when the nation squared off with the primary Trump administration over tariffs.
“However it’s essential to do it in a method that causes financial hurt within the U.S., with precision photographs on sure merchandise that additionally trigger political turbulence,” Mr. Smith Ramos added.
That might imply new tariffs on Kentucky bourbon, high-fructose corn syrup, pork or different merchandise coming predominantly from states that supported President Trump within the November election.
Situations have modified because the final time Mexico and america had been mired in a commerce disaster, throughout Mr. Trump’s first time period. Since then, Mexico has eclipsed China as the biggest buying and selling associate in items with america. Mexico additionally emerged because the top market worldwide for U.S. meals and agriculture exports, with these imports surging 7 % from the earlier 12 months to greater than $29 billion, in response to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
But when agriculture is one space the place Mexico may discover quite a few methods to retaliate, different components of the economic system, like car manufacturing or power, expose the nation’s deep vulnerabilities to Mr. Trump’s heavy-handed ways.
In these sectors, Mexico’s reliance on america has really elevated lately, giving its negotiators much less maneuvering room. However Mr. Trump’s tariffs may nonetheless resonate in america in the event that they lead to larger costs for vehicles or refined fuels like diesel.
Mexico additionally has another instruments at its disposal.
The authorities may enable the nation’s forex, the peso, to weaken towards the greenback, successfully making its exports extra aggressive regardless of Mr. Trump’s tariffs. The peso fell 2.5 % in buying and selling on Sunday to 21.21 to the greenback, its lowest stage since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine rattled markets in 2022.
A 17 % slide in worth of the peso over the previous 12 months, mixed with the tariffs imposed on Canada and China, amongst Mexico’s essential rivals within the U.S. market, will ease the blow from the tariffs in Mexico, stated Alberto Ramos, head of the Latin American analysis staff at Goldman Sachs.
However the actual danger to Mexico’s economic system is whether or not the commerce warfare will likely be resolved shortly or prolong over a protracted time frame. If the tensions go unresolved, that would result in manufacturing unit closures, job losses and a recession, economists warn.
Raine Mahdi, chief govt of Zipfox, a San Diego-based firm that hyperlinks factories in Mexico with American firms in search of options from Asia, stated he considered the tariffs as a negotiating tactic aimed toward successful concessions from Mexico in areas like migration and the drug commerce.
“All Mexico actually must do, and they’re going to, is present some real trustworthy effort in these areas,” Mr. Mahdi stated. “That’s all that is about.”
Nonetheless, politics may get in the way in which of hammering out a deal. The Trump administration’s assertion that Mexico’s authorities has an “insupportable alliance” with drug cartels has already hit a nerve in Mexico’s political institution, producing a stern rebuke from Ms. Sheinbaum.
In a video responding to the U.S. tariffs, the Mexican president on Sunday known as Mr. Trump’s declare that the Mexican authorities had an alliance with legal teams “terribly irresponsible.” She stated she was getting ready to announce retaliatory measures on Monday morning.
“In the event that they wish to act, they need to not set their sights on Mexico, however on their very own nation, the place they’ve executed nothing to cease the unlawful sale of this and different medication,” Ms. Sheinbaum stated, referring to fentanyl.
As tensions simmer, these are the areas of Mexico’s economic system which can form the nation’s response to Mr. Trump’s tariffs.
Mexican farmers, who provide 63 % of U.S. vegetable imports and 47 % of its fruit and nut imports, may come underneath intense strain if the tariff dispute intensifies. Merchandise like avocados, which have skilled skyrocketing demand from American shoppers, will seemingly get dearer.
However as Mexico has elevated its agricultural exports to america, it additionally grown into an important marketplace for U.S. meals and agricultural exports, forward of each Canada and China.
That might enable Mexico to focus on sure merchandise from america with tariffs. In 2018, Mexican negotiators strategically positioned tariffs on merchandise from states and areas with robust ties to the primary Trump administration, together with apples, bourbon, cheese, cranberries, pork and potatoes.
Canada, which Mr. Trump additionally hit with 25 % tariffs, has already introduced retaliatory levies on chosen U.S. items this time round. The country’s response is focused on maximizing the impact in Republican-controlled states, in a bid to get representatives from these states to ask the president to name off U.S. tariffs and de-escalate.
That tactic, together with comparable tariffs on U.S. merchandise from Canada, appeared to work when officers from Mexico, Canada and america returned to the negotiating desk. Scrapping the tariffs imposed on the time, they renegotiated the commerce treaty intertwining the three nations and hammered out the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Settlement, which Mr. Trump signed in 2020.
The destiny of that treaty, generally known as the united statesM.C.A., is now up within the air, as Mr. Trump and his advisers argue that its phrases weren’t restrictive sufficient to stop American producers from transferring factories outdoors america.
In relation to agriculture, consultants say Mexico may even have the potential to pivot, albeit slowly, to different markets. Whilst Mexico has relied on america, Mexico has more and more sought to increase commerce with nations in Asia and Latin America.
Mexico has additionally strengthened ties with the European Union, which is the second-largest market for Mexican exports after america, and imports merchandise like tequila and beer, espresso, fruit juice, avocados and berries.
Along with tariffs, Mexico may remove preferences for imported grains and vegetable oils from america, doubtlessly opting to import such merchandise from Latin American agricultural powerhouses like Brazil or Argentina. However that would require main modifications to infrastructure like ports and railways, one thing exhausting to do within the close to time period.
Cars
The brand new tariffs have the potential to wreak havoc on Mexico’s car trade, a linchpin of the nation’s economic system using a couple of million folks and accounting for about 5 % of gross home product.
Autos and auto components are Mexico’s largest export to america, value $157 billion in 2023. As automobile manufacturing has waned over time in Canada, it has elevated in Mexico, exposing automobile producers from world wide, and their many 1000’s of Mexican staff, to disruptions.
About 27 % of Nissan’s gross sales in america had been sourced from Mexico in 2024, whereas Stellantis sourced 23 % and Common Motors sourced 22 %, in accordance a report by S&P World, a supplier of monetary info and credit score rankings.
As provide chains have more and more grown extra advanced and intertwined, Mexico seems to have comparatively little leverage to reply with measures focusing on U.S. automobile producers since many of those firms already function in Mexico and are grappling themselves with the way to react.
However Mexico may present a concession by doing extra to curb imports of Chinese language automobiles, that are shortly making inroads in an necessary marketplace for U.S. and European automobile producers.
Uncertainty over one of many essential engines of Mexico’s economic system may produce manufacturing unit closures and job losses at house. And in america, the tariffs on automobiles may place larger pressure on automobile affordability when automobile costs are approaching historic highs.
For American shoppers, the 25 % import tax would add $6,250 to the typical $25,000 landed value (which incorporates the automobile worth, transportation and duties) of a automobile from Mexico, S&P estimated.
Power
One other weak spot for Mexico is power. After a costly bet on fossil fuels and years of underinvestment in its personal power manufacturing, Mexico faces each declining oil output and a dearth of renewable power assets to bolster its grid.
Laying naked this dilemma, Mexico relies on imports of U.S. pure fuel for a staggering 70 % of its home pure fuel consumption.
The nation’s fast-growing, low-cost industrial base is particularly depending on these power imports to energy factories, warehouses and knowledge facilities. That reliance may forestall Mexico from inserting its personal tariffs on imported U.S. power.
Mexico additionally exports roughly 700,000 barrels of crude oil a day to america, cargoes that may now face a 25 % import tax. (In contrast, tariffs of simply 10 % will likely be positioned on Canadian power exports to america.)
In flip, Mexico additionally imports giant quantities of refined fuels like gasoline and diesel from america. Ms. Sheinbaum’s predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, had sought to curb this dependence by constructing enormous new refineries in Mexico.
However immense value overruns and delays have saved Pemex, Mexico’s debt-laden nationwide oil firm, from decreasing this dependence on gas imports from america. That leaves Mexico with much less leverage because it prepares to reply to the Trump administration’s measures.
Annie Correal contributed reporting from Mexico Metropolis.
